The Stage

This is an open discussion forum for users to discuss WebRing features, wishes, thoughts, etc. QUESTIONS about and PROBLEMS with the System should be posted in detail using the support forums in Help. Negative, derogatory or personal comments will be deleted. Sadly, due to spamming and anonymous trashing of other users we have had to restrict posting to signed in members.

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A few permanent posts to illustrate the feature

Re (3403): Nav bar NEXT goes to hub page.

Thanks. Knocking the cookie security down from medium to low in the interne

Re (3401): Nav bar NEXT goes to hub page.

Two possible reasons:
1. you're site is not asctive in the ring currently

can't upload logos?

Is there a problem with logo uploading? When is the best time to upload?

Am I reading this right?
- 01/05/2007I just skimmed Tim Killeen's latest letter. Maybe I misunderstood, but it sounded like he was saying that if one had a Webring 1.0 membership, that Support would ignore any problems that one reported. So if Webring messes up, tough luck for us? They're not going to fix anything?

Right now, I have a suspended site that has BOTH valid HTML and SSNB code in the New York City Web WebRing, id=thenewyorkcitywe site=7, but I can't get it to pass because when I try to go in to test it, I get an "unauthorized access" error. I wrote to Support a while ago, but I guess I'm not going to hear back from them? I wrote to our ring manager asking him to test the site for me, and had to explain why I couldn't test my own site.

Replied
- 01/05/2007"What's next", I asked, not knowing how soon I would get my answer. I explained the situation to support, telling them about how I was trying to reactivate my suspended site. I heard back from somebody whose response was to delete the very site I was trying to reactivate, and then tell me about how much better my service would be if I didn't tax his attention span by telling them what it was, that I was actually trying to get done.

I sent in a letter of complaint regarding the incident, but suspect that it will most likely be intercepted by the very person whose unprofessional service I am complaining about, and be swiftly deleted. The point I made, probably to nobody, was that genuine service begins with a willingness to listen to the one being served, and that willingness was, in this case, altogether absent.

Replied
- 01/06/2007Although I think its going to take some time for a few to adjust, I have said all along that I think it is a good idea for WebRing to charge for "premium" services. As long as people can start a no-frills ring and maintain no-frills memberships, I personally have no problem with charges for additional features and higher levels of support.

There are so many managers that do this as a hobby like myself, that we could not justify paying for the service. There are others that use WebRing for more commercial purposes, and I think they represent a good opportunity for fee based premium services.

So for what its worth WebRing, I think you are now on the right path. I encourage my fellow ring managers to start off this new year by showing support for the new direction.

Replied
- 01/06/2007"Although I think its going to take some time for a few to adjust, I have said all along that I think it is a good idea for WebRing to charge for "premium" services. As long as people can start a no-frills ring and maintain no-frills memberships, I personally have no problem with charges for additional features and higher levels of support."

Sigh.

Being able to customize one's navbar would seem to be one of those "frills". Everybody else gets stuck with the "streamlined" navbar with the "transparent" background, because, because ... because Tim said so. Take a look at his most recent letter.

In other words, take the old product, sabotage it a little to deliberately make the customer unhappy, and then offer him a version of the same old product that hasn't been sabotaged quite as much, at a higher price, as something new and improved. That takes nerve. No, this isn't cool.

"2.0 members get priority support and a personal rep they can work with. That doesn't translate into 1.0 members get NO support."

No, but it seems to be getting close to that when we have people in support responding the way your man did. I tell him that the system is keeping me from getting my site reactivated, because it's not letting me into the page where I click that little button to test my site, and he responds by deleting the very site I've been trying to reactivate and saying that I'll get better service if I don't tell him what the problem is. There's an expression for what he did, and it isn't "serving the customer". It's "giving somebody the bum's rush".

Regardless of the spin you want to put on Killeen's words, that's how they come across and that's fairly close to what seems to be reality. The message I'm getting from the service I got is "any reports of any problems you may be having with the management of a ring membership will result in your loss of that membership". I wasn't helped, I was penalized, and that definitely is not service. It would be like bringing one's car into the shop, only to find out that the mechanic had dealt with a leaky oil valve by having the car compacted.